Mazda may sell its US mfg stake to Ford.

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
RX7s are junk. Old Rx7s are big time junk. Only three top Japan auto makers out there. Nissan,Toyota and Honda.


Nissan = Renault. French junk
Toyota = uncontrolled acceleration. Death junk.
Honda = overpriced/overvalued junk.

See how easy that was? None of those "opinions" are necessarily correct and yet all are every bit as valid as your's.

For the record, my 4bbl 12A powered '84 RX-7 was very reliable. And I did things like rev it way past the buzzer and ran Castrol Syntec 5W50 in it. About a qt every 1000 miles. I might still be driving it if it had not been stolen.

It did everything really well. It shouldn't have. It didn't have an independant rear suspension nor did it have rack and pinion steering. The parallelogram steering and solid rear axle may have been interchangeable with the Ford Courier for all I know. But the car worked and it worked well.

 

[mpvue]

we have had a bunch of mazdas, I liked all of them even with their 'quirks'.
'94 626: although I did like it, had some major shortcomings: underpowered thirsty V6 req 91 octane too!
large ratio gap between 1st and 2nd gear, not very sporty.
'00 MPV: again, underpowered, because the 1st year they put the ford 2.5 in it instead of the 3.0. great little minivan, pioneered a lot of ideas that the others all copied: roll down windows in the rear doors, sideways sliding seats, and 3rd row folded flat into the floor.
'96 MPV: to be fair, I bought it old and used so it had issues. but, it was way ahead of its time; real 4WD, it was a crossover before there were crossovers.
my favorite, my current '09 Mazda5 5 speed. NO ONE else makes a 6 passenger manual trans car. stock w/ 50 series rubber on 17" wheels, handles better than it has a right to.

 

[PZR2874]

I never owned an RX7/8

I had heard a long time ago running synthetic in them "wore the wankel down more".

Dealer even told me , if you are looking into one... do your research on the type of oil to use. They even went as far to say "even at the customers' request, we won't do a synthetic oil change".

Not sure what to make of this.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: PZR2874
I never owned an RX7/8

I had heard a long time ago running synthetic in them "wore the wankel down more".

Dealer even told me , if you are looking into one... do your research on the type of oil to use. They even went as far to say "even at the customers' request, we won't do a synthetic oil change".

Not sure what to make of this.

simple: the rotary requires you to relearn everything you think you know about engines. it is designed to use engine oil as a apex seal lubricant, so it by design burns oil.
synthetic oil is designed to resist burning, so they do not want you putting synthetic in your rotary.

 

[Autobahn88]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
RX7s are junk. Old Rx7s are big time junk. Only three top Japan auto makers out there. Nissan,Toyota and Honda.


Really? I am glad that your expert opinion on Mazda was voiced. Now, I have owned many Mazdas in the past including the dreaded RX7 and have never had any issues with Mazda. This is why I still drive one today. I tracked my old Rex and miata and also used them as daily drivers. Anyway, well informed posts like yours is what makes this site a valuable resource for information..

 

[hounddog]

I handled and worked on them. Park a RX7 and go out of town for a couple weeks. Come back to find carbon tips seized and no compression. Mazda engineering says 'OH WELL" its not a very expensive engine to replace. Tell your customer not to park without running so long. Then the older RX7 rust issue. They age like a old [censored]. No where near what a Z car or Supra is. Junk. Plus I say again outrageous parts prices. Oh and there is the v6 head issues with cavitation holes eroded in them. Miata's are OK fun cars. Outrageous part prices.

 

[Autobahn88]

Well, I and many have never had the "issues" that you describe. So in my experience they are just as good and if not better then the other japanese brands. Just my personal experience. Oh, by the way, I have let my old Rex sit weeks at a time and all winter and never had the issues that you bring up. Come spring time she always fired right up.

 

[mpvue]

never found Mazda parts prices to be 'outrageous', and I had to visit the dealer plenty to keep my '96 MPV running.

 

[hounddog]

But many did and do have the issues I described. Got many a turns over won't start but was running fine last month towed in. ACR(air control regulators for idle speed 626) regulators $600 plus. Miata standard window regulators $400 and so on. Much more exspensive parts then Nissan and Toyota's and Honda's.

 

[PZR2874]

Originally Posted By: mpvue
Originally Posted By: PZR2874
I never owned an RX7/8

I had heard a long time ago running synthetic in them "wore the wankel down more".

Dealer even told me , if you are looking into one... do your research on the type of oil to use. They even went as far to say "even at the customers' request, we won't do a synthetic oil change".

Not sure what to make of this.

simple: the rotary requires you to relearn everything you think you know about engines. it is designed to use engine oil as a apex seal lubricant, so it by design burns oil.
synthetic oil is designed to resist burning, so they do not want you putting synthetic in your rotary.


Nice to know... Awesome

I do miss my Subies though

 

[mpvue]

I remember reading that guys were swapping rotaries into their VW bugs. one guy said he was looking for something 'more reliable' than the air cooled flat-4.
lolz...

 

[Sbailey294]

Reliability, when not give in a quantitative way is relative to the owner.
I have always had/ favored Japanese cars since young, and to me, american and my german cars have been less reliable.
Had I only ever owned German cars, I may think "these are bullet proof".

Again, having owned many japanese cars and others, my RX7 was by far the worst in terms of reliability, but one of the best in terms of "quality in places other manufactures ignore". By that, you could tell that they really put effort into making them 'special'. The ergonomics to the power train were all phenomenal. On board computer displays, and wiper switches... not so great.

I had a turbo RX7. These are finicky because the extreme heat tends to wear out components quickly- however by 80s turbo car standards, they are actually all a handful to own.

The naturally aspirated RX7s are surprisingly reliable as there is no turbo heat, excessive combustion pressures/ or detonation issues... or vacuum hose mess to cause problems.

Its relative, I see both sides to this argument.


EDIT/ ADD ON: the "modern" Mazdas in the past several years are very competitive to their other Japanese counterparts, without loosing there great performance driving characteristics. I can't say the same for Honda, who has lost so much driving character in the past 9 years.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
RX7s are junk. Old Rx7s are big time junk. Only three top Japan auto makers out there. Nissan,Toyota and Honda.

Back before 1995, Nissan engines were some of the most durable. Now they are some of the least durable.

 

[gotsnake]

My only real problem with my Mazdas is the road noise. I think I'm getting old or my dad's caddy has spoiled me. As you can see I'm a huge mazda fan. It takes a certain type of person to buy a Mazda. Zoom Zoom forever. Well until they solve the problem with the MINI cooper S regarding the fuel pumps. That is probably the only other car I would consider over my Mazda.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: gotsnake
My only real problem with my Mazdas is the road noise. I think I'm getting old or my dad's caddy has spoiled me. As you can see I'm a huge mazda fan. It takes a certain type of person to buy a Mazda. Zoom Zoom forever...

Probably the worst thing about my Mazda is how it has ruined otherwise perfectly good cars for me.

Given the amount of FOMOCO and Ford ovals, and AISIN and Denso stamped all over under the hood of my Mazda, I can't see why it would be any less reliable than any Ford or Toyota.

I did notice that the Fusion I rented was quieter than my 6. It was otherwise a dumbed-down/applianced-up version of my car but it was noticeably quieter.

Co-worker has a 2005 Camry. He bought a big gas grill. Go to open the trunk on his Camry and there's this HUGE cavernous trunk with a comically small opening. The grill is not going to fit. We still fight with it for a good 10 minutes before going back to get the Mazda and easily stuffed it into the hatch.
But his Camry is quieter than my Mazda.

Got to spend some time with a new-ish Maxima (2010). It was a cool car I guess. The CVT takes a little getting used to and the VQ provides as much power as any daily driven passenger car will ever need with quite a bit to spare. Was it better than my old 6? Honestly, no. Certainly not $20,000 better. It was again quieter than my Mazda and the A/C was better. That's about it. 4 Door Sports Car? Sorry. The 5 Door Sports Car is better when the roads get twisty.

I also recently drove an '06 Malibu Maxx. It may have even more useable cargo space than my Mazda. Once you got it into top gear and the 3.5 V6 wasn't being so thrashy, it was quieter than my Mazda. But the steering was so unpleasant. Most of the driver controls were unpleasant.

My wife's car is noisier than my Mazda

Unlike a Neon SRT/4 it actually has a muffler. I'm fairly certain that it is a straight thru design though. It makes almost as much noise as a Neon SRT/4. The snaps and pops are a little more muted. The growl is very much still there.

 

[Paulson]

I love my Mazda 3 2.0L

Previous to that I had an 04 Chevy Impala LS sport and it just wasn't as fun to drive. The Mazda w/a manual transmission is so fun to drive plus excellent gas mileage.

I will admit it is quite noisy when it comes to road noise but other than that they're great cars. Mine has almost 118K on it so far.